Wednesday, February 4, 2015

State of City speech: Rezonings to require affordable housing

The mayor, who called the effort to create affordable housing a “profound challenge,” turned repeatedly to Queens as a large part of the answer. He pledged to write new rules, “ones that mandate affordable housing as a condition for development.”

Two of six neighborhoods in the city he has slated for mandatory affordable housing requirements are Long Island City and western Flushing. Each of the four other boroughs will have one such zone. The city will begin work on rezoning these neighborhoods this spring.

“In every major rezoning development, we will require developers to include affordable housing. Not as an option. As a precondition,” he said, citing another Queens project as an example of how the mandate works.

“Want to see this approach in action? Look at Astoria Cove in Queens. As a result of this administration’s framework — and the City Council’s tough negotiations — 465 units of affordable housing will be created at this site alone,” de Blasio said.

“That’s 465 families who no longer have to choose between living in the city they call home, or finding another city they can afford. It means that hundreds of kids will live and learn and grow in our city.”

How do they get those flags so nice and orderly and stiff behind the speaker's rostrum? They use starch or coat hangers for the effect? Looks like they're in a chorus line. (Katz had something similar at QC. They had her flunkies march them out onto the stage before she yapped.) I see this all the time. I think Bloomberg started this. Also, how about those mobile rostrums that the pols always plop down on the street when they're having a press event. I just love those fancy-schmanzy officialdom emblems on them. Don't you? I even think Van B. sleeps with his.

affordable housing has no longer become an issue,like the small businesses they feign concern over,this has also become a marketing slogan.

and mayor big slow cites that glassy dump in astoria as success? because a measly 465 units were set aside? I think he doesn't(or doesn't want to)know the number of applicants that want these apartments.And the stupid lottery process to get them is absurd.

and with the 7 train breaking down regularly and the crushed sardine can commute on the E and F and local lines,they are concentrating most of the rezoning where these commutes have and will only get worse.

there are actually a lot of places in queens and the other boroughs where more building is possible.But the only thing they are constructing are samaritan villages.

I wish these politicos would stop pandering to and favoring poor families,what about poor single people sans kids? who aren't on welfare?

So, in other words, dump the third world refuse into Queens so it will not spoil prime real estate areas .This is similar to the post WWII affordable housing projects that were forced into areas of the Bronx...Sound View...etc.....which turned these areas into high crime nabes. Stop listening to your wife, Mr. Mayor, and start acting like a real man.

Why the tripple NYC and American flags on the podium Mayor Di Blah Blah? One each would suffice. If Der Mayor intends to court the minority vote again, perhaps he should let his hair grow out and get a blow cut.

History has proven that every time a developer gets a tax break or incentive, he will find a way to slip around it. One thing is always certain...what a developer proposes for somebody else's neighborhood, he won't accept for where he and his family lives. This is just Di Blasio's form of NMBY nonsense veiled in a do-good wrapper. The man, and his wife, want a second term.

That rings true. That infamous criminal developer,Tommy Huang, got a tax break because of the partial landmark status of RKO Keith's Flushing. theatre. So what did he do with it? Screw us hardworking taxpayers. Developers' promises are usually made to be broken!

Whittle away rent control and rent stabilization and promise them "affordable housing" in its place. It's greedy landlords who have made New York an exit port for the middle class. Is anyone dumb enough to believe that a developers intentions will be anything else than squeezing the last dime out of his new residents? The mayor gets his support from the real estate industry. To counter this he proposes being....pardon the reference....a public advocate. Well, he was not much of one when he was.

Yes, New Yorkers who ride the subways to Queens do work very hard. And their commutes on the 7, E and F are hellish and long and when the get off the trains, the next stage of their commute by bus involves waiting on long lines in the cold and rain. They pay real estate and income taxes, but the mayor ignores them.

Who is going to be responsible for these buildings when they start breaking down? Will these "affordable houses" come equipped with their own super? or will they just turn out looking like the project buildings in a few more years?

I know an elderly guy in Queens who owns a house on a BIG piece of property, about 80 by 210 feet.Recently he was approached by a developer who wanted to purchase the land. The old man told him to get lost.Right before Christmas he received a letter from the developer's attorney that told him in a threatening tone that his client would pursue the matter and if necessary utilize eminent domain to secure the land.The old man had his attorney respond by threatening a law suit claiming harassment and other charges.He has yet to receive a reply.

"I know an elderly guy in Queens who owns a house on a BIG piece of property, about 80 by 210 feet.Recently he was approached by a developer who wanted to purchase the land. The old man told him to get lost.Right before Christmas he received a letter from the developer's attorney that told him in a threatening tone that his client would pursue the matter and if necessary utilize eminent domain to secure the land.The old man had his attorney respond by threatening a law suit claiming harassment and other charges.He has yet to receive a reply."___________________________________C'mon. Name names. This could be big and go national. It'd blow the lid off of things.

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